Exhibition

Edo in Colour

Prints from Japan’s Metropolis

The pulse of a city perfected on paper, explore the breathtaking world of the city now known as Tokyo.

Closed for changeover of exhibits 17–21 May

Newly published perspective view: Enjoying cool evening at Edo’s Ryōgoku bridge
Kitagawa Utamaro II
Japan, 1806-1818
CBL J 2522

Actors Bandō Mitsugorō I as Hanbei and Yamashita Kinsaku as Ochiyo
Ippitsusai Bunchō
Japan, 1770
CBL J 2464

New year’s dream from Prosperous flowers of the elegant twelve months
Isoda Koryūsai
Japan, c. 1773
CBL J 2459

Dry goods store Ebisuya
Utagawa Toyokuni
Japan, 1793-1797
CBL J 2571

Visiting the Yoshiwara from Modern sparrows of Edo
Utagawa Kunisada
Japan, 1836-1838
CBL J 2596

Bursting into life as capital of Japan’s ruling shogunate, by the mid-18th century the population of Edo (modern Tokyo) had grown to over one million.

From buskers and teahouse beauties to actors, entertainers, prostitutes and star-crossed lovers, the people of downtown Edo became celebrities of this new metropolis, their image captured in vibrant woodblock prints.

Woodblock prints were an affordable art, printed by the thousand and consumed as fast as fashion demanded. They are also aesthetically rich and technically accomplished. As illustrious artists and shrewd publishers battled for market share, they constructed the city anew on paper.

Featuring one hundred prints and printed books from the Chester Beatty’s renowned collections of Japanese art, Edo in Colour explores how woodblock prints shaped a city’s identity as they crafted its image.

The exhibition will close for a complete changeover of works from Monday 17 to Friday 21 May 2021 inclusive.

Presented with the support of the Japan Foundation; exhibition symposium supported by Toshiba International Foundation

Symposium

Shaping a New Approach: Jack Hillier and Japanese Prints after 1945

3-5 March 2021

Museum collections have a lasting impact on the understanding of the arts and disciplines they embody. As such, collectors and the motivations that direct them often become the focus of intense study. Less frequently studied, however, are the advisors who guide those collectors, often while also writing the reference texts that take disciplines forward.

25 years ago, the world of Japanese art lost one of its luminaries – Jack Hillier (1912-1995). A prolific author, advisor, mentor and collector, and completely self-taught, Hillier made an inestimable contribution to the study of Japan’s printed arts during his lifetime, as well as shaping the literature and collections that continue to inform understanding of this medium.

Working from a critical examination of the impact of Hillier’s multifaceted work with a distinguished panel of invited speakers, this symposium will stretch out to consider wider topics of post-war collecting and display of Japanese art, the unsettling of canon, and the understated role of the advisor in collections’ history.

Held with the support of the Toshiba International Foundation

Further details coming soon